Chez

Jesus that was bad, as was his display against Watford that same season. Chris Perry, Wayne Thomas and then substitute Oliver Lancashire all in first away game in league 1 at Huddersfield come close though.

Just waiting for the tesco to be hooked up to the mains so they can borrow some leccy to power them

In England it used to be 50% up front, remainder by end of first year (not including add on obviously), whilst players signed from abroad was spread across the period of the contract. Perhaps that has changed, or perhaps I am mistaken.

Really? My impression is that If United don't meet our valuation, whatever that is, he will be going nowhere. What that figure is, only we know, but It will be less than we are publicly asking and more than United are currently offering. We are not actually looking to flog him, we are just more up front these days in terms of admitting that every player has a price.

United sign Schweinsteiger, we keep Morgan. Happy days. Simple as that, unless of course Arsenal come back with a £25m offer. Isn't Schweinsteiger ageing though?

are you saying Clasie is not a good player so won't shine immediately, or are you saying he is a good player but will need time to find his feet in a different league? Not sure I follow you. Tadic was up to speed immediately. Mind you he had a preseason. With Djuricic I would say it was more about his lack of fitness than needing to find his feet in the Prem.

Yes...ok, so I don't know, but that quote from Clasie suggests he has been sounded out, his agent has been primed and he knows the score. He will sit tight and wait for the Morgan deal to conclude. He, like us knows it will happen. United won't walk away from this deal, they will just drag their feet before stumping up the figure we wanted all along. The club certainly has no reason to try and rush it through if it means a smaller fee. Personally I'd prefer us to try and price him out of the market, he's that good a player. I've not seen Clasie, but he will have to be mint for us to not go backwards.

I suspect Clasie is doing just that, in fact his recent comments: "I have read Koeman's comments. If Schneilderlin leaves, we will see." With regards to pre-season, Toby joined last day of August. He slotted in immediately. Football is a very simple game. Top players don't need weeks of preseason to know how to play. The side as a whole, yes, but not individual players.

the players to replace him have been identified. They will know that the move is dependant on Morgan going. If they fancy coming here they won't make a decision to go elsewhere now, they will bide their time to ensure they get the best deal. I don't buy in too much to needing to have a pre-season with us. Good players will slot in almost instantly. Better to get a better player late then a lessor player early. In short, lets hold out for the full £30m. Morgan is top notch and we should get top dollar for him.

New north stand to be discussed at next board meeting which, with their delusions of grandeur will no doubt morph into a new ground discussion (ten whole thousand season tickets sold after all)?

he looked as bad a centre back as I have seen away at Sheffield United - I assume that is the game you are referring to?

they could lose Lloris and Morgan is off to United.

I wonder what effect losing out on Toby will have on Wanyama. There were strong noises about him wanting to join Arsenal in the press and if Morgan leaves I wonder if he will angle for a move on the basis that we are once again not retaining out top talent. Never dull at Saints is it.

you don't hang about, do you? I suspect you'll gets dogs abuse for raising that, but should Morgan AND Wanyama join Toby and Clyne (plus Forster injury) then we probably will have to pull some more rabbits out of hats. Hopefully we won't have to.

out of interest, how many games did he miss through injury last season?

the thread hits 6 years today. Anyone got a gift?

no chance. Some nice whipped in corners ****ed over by scouse/manc pundits don't make him a world beater. After a terrific opening game against Arsenal I have been less impressed by Targett too. He has a way to go yet. Reed is great off the ball, but can he do anything with it? Not sure any of the others that have been on the fringe look close to me.

Portsdown Hill+waterslide+Penny Chew =

there was some bad luck, but there was also hitting the cross bar from inside the six yard box too. He also lost his confidence completely at one point and stopped shooting completely. RK showed tremendous patience with him, which in the end paid off as he eventually found the net and started `playing' again. I think if he had had another genuine option he would have lost his place.

I think you might need to rephrase the question. If you break the top four you would automatically be `deemed' successful. If your question is: is is possible to break into the top four with a side including a majority of English players, then yes. Will it happen? No. English players are too expensive for the mid table sides and the big five of six don't care where they are from, they just want the best. But all the top sides will have English players. I think there is a lack of knowledge and faith about lower league players (where a lot of British players reside). If you come through the leagues as we did you get a really good understanding of who is any good and can make the step up. Wenger has done a good job in identifying top young talent from the lower leagues and maybe we should follow that lead?

good question. How does a side make that step up without a billionaire making money no object? It's certainly frustrating bringing a good side together and then seeing the best players cherry picked. Steady progress is I guess all you can try, but the window of opportunity is so small, perhaps the only option is to wait for a year with a very good backbone (like last year/summer) and then gamble. But even that might not work. I don't have an answer, all I know is when you have a very good side you have to maximise the potential from it and make sure cup competitions are taken seriously, because it could be the best chance in many seasons of winning something. Not sure we have done that.

Do any of these player transfer tug of wears turn out to be worthwhile in the end? I am mindful of Chelsea paying United an absolute fortune in compensation to get Obi Mikel and he turned out to be utter ****e IMO.

either it depnds on the data inputter or where our European scout fancies taking his holiday